Weak
by Syo Kurusu
Summary: What is truly weakness...? (Rated M for safety)
1. Chapter 1

**I**

That day had started out as normal as any other day had, at least for Malek. He woke up, came downstairs to his mom cooking him eggs, and his grandmother yelling at him about waking up earlier. He smiled how he usually did, saying he would start waking up earlier like all three of them knew he wouldn't, and sat at the table. Nothing new, really. Even the eggs weren't unusual; they were the same eggs his mom always cooked every morning, scrambled the whatever different thing she could manage to scrape up to put in their meal for the day. Today it happened to be cheese. He loved when his mom happened to find cheese.

His mom sat the plate in front of him, smiling, and he wasted no time. He immediately started shoveling down the eggs like it was the first time he ate in years. "Boy, if you eat any faster, you're bound to shovel your eggs right in to your windpipe." Said his grandmother in a scolding tone. Malek smiled and slowed down, he knew she was just trying to protect him.

You see, Malek was a ten -year-old boy who had the honor of being the only male living in his family anymore. His grandfather, his grandmother's husband, had died peacefully of old age. His paternal grandparents had been dead before he was even born. His father, on the other hand...

"Malek, dear, are you going to visit Haruka again?" His mom's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. The woman was now seated across from him, having served his grandmother her own plate of eggs and having a plate of her own in front of her. Malek nodded happily, the very thought of Haruka.

Haruka was Malek's best friend, a girl who had never judged him or picked on him, as so many other kids around them would. She was his pillar, he told her everything. She even knew he was gay, a fact both his grandmother and his mother had no clue about at this point. He knew that they would be devastated if they found out what team he played for; especially since that meant no possibility of him having children. Also they would probably just dismiss him as curious, considering his young age. But he knew deep down all along that he had always only had crushes on boys. So he was sure of it.

"Yes! Haru's going to take me to see a pretty flower she found that she says she's never seen before today." He said happily, taking another bite of his eggs. His mother and grandmother looked to each other smiling; he knew that they were already plotting to have the two married off to each other. But it wasn't like that with him and Haruka, they were like siblings.

"I worry about that poor girl, though, with how her parents are…" His mother said absentmindedly, and Malek already knew what she was referring to. Her parents fought, a lot. And that's why him and Haruka would often go out on adventures, so she could get away from her house. He looked at the time, and smiled.

"I gotta get going now to go to Haru's house!" He said, standing up suddenly. He then bolted out of the house, his grandma yelling after him about cleaning his dish before he went. But she knew that it was pointless, he always did this. Once he had it in his mind to visit Haruka, he went straight to it without another thought.

He ran happily, smiling as he went as fast as possible. His shaggy blonde hair glistened in the sun and blew lightly in the breeze as he ran, and his dark blue eyes glinted. Haruka lived farther out than he did, his family being a little better off than hers financially. Though everyone where they lived, in Shigasana, wasn't exactly comfortable with their finances usually. He knew he was getting close when he heard the screaming, that screaming was always in the air around Haruka's house.

He slowed as he approached, and saw Haruka herself standing on the porch. She seemed to be peering in the front door, looking at something within her house. This was the first thing that was off about Malek's day that day, the fact his friend was doing such a thing. Usually the girl was inside and he had to awkwardly knock. The screaming would always stop for a brief moment while her mother answered the door, bruises and injuries covering her form. She always smiled so kindly to him. She would always ask him how we was, call Haruka down, and then they would run off to play.

He slowly got closer to the front porch, the screams now forming to be words in his head. "Drunk again…?" "Stupid bitch…" "You said you'd stop…" Haruka must have heard Malek approaching cause she whipped her head around to look at him, her icey blue eyes focusing on him. Her black hair was long, reaching to her lower back, and she was pale. She looked visibly upset.

"Hey, Haru-"

"Shh, come here Malek."

Haruka motioned him over silently, her voice not above a whisper. He only understood her cause being friends with her had taught him how to read lips, they often would whisper to avoid her father hearing them and having a reason to yell at them, and whispers were never heard easily over the raised voices that constantly emitted from her home.

Malek obeyed though, climbing up the steps as silently as possible and looking to peer through the door with her, it was easy as he was already a head taller than her, having started to hit a growth spurt already. He understood why she looked so upset now, the scene they were looking in at was horrible. Her mom sat in the corner, her hands covering her face, cowering. Her father, whose face was visibly flush, was throwing all sorts of kitchen utensils, pots, and pans at her, every time something hit her the sound made Malek's stomach jump.

"You said you'd stop drinking…" Her mom croaked out, peering through her fingers at her enraged husband. He stopped throwing things at her, looking at her for a long moment, a pot clenched in his hands. Malek felt like he was holding his breath, and he must have been, because he let it out when he saw her father put the pot down gently. He then slowly approached her mom, who was audibly hiccuping and sobbing now.

Malek was afraid that he was walking over to strike her, but he was surprised when he simply kneeled down, and started caressing her hair. the scene was very loving compared to what they had just witnessed, however Haruka's mother still seemed out of her mind crying.

"Rio, please, don't cry…" He heard Haruka's father coo, his hand traveling down to her shoulder, rubbing it. "I'm sorry, baby… let me make it up to you…. you know I love you… I promise to stop drinking… you need me, don't you…" The phrases keep pouring out of his mouth, as he slowly started touching all over her body, pulling her dress off slowly. Haruka and Malek both backed away from the door, Malek looking at Haruka with a worried expression on his face, while Haruka simply looked down, her firsts clench.

They stood there silent. Malek thought it was an eternity before Haruka finally looked up, her eyes piercing into his. Malek didn't know what to make of her expression at this point, she looked somewhere between angry and hysterical. She silently took his hand, pulling him away off the steps, leading him away from her house that was oddly silent now and out into the streets.

Malek felt awkward, he wanted to say something, anything to break this silence that was killing him. However he was afraid that if he opened his mouth to speak at this point nothing but all the wrong things would come spilling out. So he simply stayed quiet, letting her lead him to wherever they were going. He wondered if it was to the flower she had told him of last time, the one they planned to go see. But when they stopped it was in a grassy area, with some trees surrounding them. There wasn't a flower in sight, and he knew what this meant. This was where they went when she wanted to talk about something very serious.

"...why are women so weak, Malek?" They had stood there silently for some time, she had never let go of his hand the whole time. he knew she was holding on as a form of comfort at this point, so he didn't make a move to move his hand away. he just stood there silently giving her all the time she needed to think. Whens he finally did speak, her voice sounded so strained and quiet, he had to struggle to understand her.

"W-What do you mean, Haru...?" Malek said quietly back. He didn't quite understand why she said that. He never thought his mother and grandmother were weak, he actually admired them. They had been working so hard to keep the house and raise him, he never thought they were feeble or weak at all. But when Haruka turned to look at him, tears in the corners of her eyes, he knew that she had a different view.

"Why are women so weak?!" She suddenly said loudly, causing Malek to jump. Until then they both had been talking in rather quiet tones, so her volume was a sudden jump, compared to what they were speaking in. "Why does my mom have to need my scumbag of a father?" Her voice broke at the end of that sentence. she started wiping tears away from her eyes.

"When you're a woman, does that mean you'll inevitably end up relying on a man…? Even if he hurts you? Does it mean you have to be feeble and give up your dreams for a man who does nothing but beat and violate you?" She suddenly knelt down, covering her face. Malek truly didn't know what to tell he could do is kneel down beside her, rubbing her back and he felt her hiccup in to her hands.

"Will I have to give up my dream to be in the survey corps…?" He winced. He never liked that dream of hers, to be in the survey corps. He didn't like how likely it was for her to die. It had also been how his dad met his early demise, all that his mom received of him that was left was a foot. Only a foot. He didn't want to receive only a foot of Haruka.

"I don't want to Malek…" She looked at him, her eyes puffy and red. He felt his breath catch in his throat at the site of her, she was normally so reserved and stoic, trying her best to hide her worries from him. She had said it was so she wouldn't burden him, and so he wouldn't worry. "So I've been thinking…"

"Thinking of what?" Malek said quietly. He wondered what she possibly could have been thinking about, so many ludicrous things running through his head. Murder her father? Run away?

"I want to stop being a girl."

That caught Malek off guard. He looked at her surprised. How would she stop being a girl? He looked at her skeptically, and she must have noticed, because she reached down her shirt and pulled out something shiny, and he realized what it was. It was a pair of scissors. She smiled weakly, looking down at them.

"I know that I can't biologically be male," She started, looking back up at him. he looked back at her, confusion clear in his eyes. "but I can look like one... " Malek was surprised. Did this mean she was going to cut her hair…? And pretend to be a boy now?

"But what about your parents? Won't they be against this?" Malek he was asking those questions she rose the scossors to her hair, holding a section of her hair in one hand, the other shaking hand holding the scissors, open and waiting to cut her hair off. She closed her eyes and steadied herself, and finally cut it. The section slowly floated down into the grass, and Malek looked in awe at her, now missing part of her hair on the right side of her head.

"I'm going to run away, I can't stay there anymore…" She murmured. He watched as section after section came off of her hair, until finally she had cut it all. Her hair now barely reached the top of her ears, a messy mop of black hair atop her head now, cut uneven everywhere. "Could you…?" She held out the scissors to him and he knew what she wanted, she wanted him to cut it a bit more clean than she had been able to on her own. He had to admit as he was cutting the random long strands and evening up her hair that without it, she really did look like a boy now. He knew it was probably only because at this point, they hadn't gone through puberty.

"A-Are you sure, Haru?" Malek said as he finally finished her hair. She turned to look at him, nodding.

"Yes, I am. I don't want to have to give up my dreams or be weak, Malek." She said, reaching down into the grass and picking up some of her hair between her fingers. It shined in the light, as her hair atop her head did. "Being male will open up a lot of opportunities I otherwise wouldn't have as a girl…" She looked at him, and he could tell by the look on her face she was serious about this. And who was he to stop her?

"I'll refer to you as a boy from now on." Malek said, smiling to her. He was relieved that she smiled back, this smile not looking strained or forced like her previous ones. "So does this mean you're changing your name and stuff too?" Malek asked. Haruka was currently digging up some of the ground, burying the long strands of hair from her haircut and covering it back up. It would weird him out, he admitted, if he randomly found hair in the grass.

"Well," Haruka started, standing up. She dusted her hands off on her shirt, looking over at Malek. She looked like a very frail boy now, her features looking boyish now with her new hair cut. "Haruka is a unisex name, so I don't have to." Malek sighed in relief, he knew it would be a pain to try to remember to call her something else. Remembering to call her a boy and use male pronouns for her was going to be enough of a struggle.

"So what should we do n-" That's when they most abnormal thing that would occur on that day happened to Malek. All of a sudden there was a loud crash, making both Malek and Haruka jump. Their heads both turned to look in the direction the sound came from, and judging from the gasp that he heard from his side, he knew Haruka was seeing what he was also seeing.

There, at the wall that surrounded their town and all of humanity, there was what looked to be a lightning strike, with smoke starting to rise after. He knew for some reason in the back of his head that wasn't a good thing. "Haruka…" He didn't really know what to say. But before he could think more, she had already taken off toward the wall, toward where both of their homes were.

"Haruka!" Malek yelled, taking off after her. She was small and nimble, so she was easily outrunning him right now, never looking back. "Haruka it might be dangerous, what are you doing!" Malek yelled after her, but she didn't stop, nor look back. Not until they both saw the most horrific thing in their life.

Haruka stopped dead in her tracks, looking up at the wall. Malek had been too busy trying to catch up to her, so when he finally did he was huffing and puffing and trying to catch his breath. When he finally looked up, that's when he realized why she had stopped running.

Standing there, peering over the wall, was a monster. It looked like a human face, with eyes looking down on to Shigasana, but it's face was missing skin, seeming to be mostly muscle. The sight made his stomach drop, because he knew what that thing was. It was something he had hoped he would never have to see.

"T-Titan…" He choked out, and almost as if on cue they heard scream and a loud crash. Haruka wasted no time, sprinting forward on to the main street, where they could see the full wall. And what they saw made Malek feel as if his whole world was ending at that moment.

The giant titan had disappeared, but that did nothing to appease him, because there at the base of the wall was a giant hole, and walking in were many other titans. He wanted to run back and flee away from the titans, but for some reason Haruka took off towards them, going even faster than she was originally.

"Haruka!" Malek screamed, watching her form get farther away slowly. He wanted to do anything but follow her towards those monsters, but he didn't want to lose her either. So he took off after her, feeling like his heart was about to jump out of his throat and run the other way.

Why was this happening to him?

 **Hlo, Syo here.**

 **I don't expect you to like this story, or read it to be honest. It's a fun project I'm typing at work in my free time for mine and my good friend's enjoyment, and to just be creative. I will not pretend to be an expert on Shingeki no Kyojin, nor will I act as if I'm perfect at writing.**

 **Again, this is simply for fun. If you end up enjoying reading this story, that's good. If you want to critique it, that's awesome too. But I in no way expect anyone to like it.**

 **P.S.- I do not own SnK**

 **P.S.S. There will be no more of these throughout my updates of this, this was just a way for me to talk briefly with anyone else who may come across my fanfic. I am well aware is a public domain, so I wanted to just give some explaination behind this story. Also, I am horrible at consistently updating, so do not expect quick and timely updates. Just a forewarning.**


	2. Chapter 2

**II**

Her lungs were burning.

 _Just turn back._

No, she couldn't right now.

 _If you go back for her, you'll have to bring that disgusting man with you too._

She cringed at the thought, but she didn't care.

 _Just save yourself…_

She couldn't, that would be selfish. No matter how much she wanted to turn right now, screaming and running as fast as possible to Wall Rose, she couldn't right now. For some reason, all that was flooding her mind currently was the thought of that broken home. The one she just told her best friend that she wanted to run away from. Wasn't she all but too happy to just leave it 5 minutes ago? What had changed?

She gulped. until now she had been watching her feet while she ran, because she didn't wanna look up. However, she slowly lifted her gaze, her eyes setting on the grotesque forms in the distance. They were already picking up helpless humans, swallowing some whole and others being bitten in to pieces, their blood raining crimson down from them. She heard nothing but screaming up ahead.

That was what had changed. The very real possibility of not having that horrible place even exist anymore. She could see her mom's face in her mind; the woman smiling to her. 'Haruka… you're becoming such a pretty girl… You have hair just like your mother's...' Haruka closed her eyes, feeling her eyes start to burn. What would her mom say when she saw Haruka had cut off her hair? Had wanted to become a boy? Had wanted to flee from their home?

"Haruka!" Haruka's eyes flew open, Malek's scream pulling her out of her mind. She halted, panting and looking back at her blonde friend as he scrambled beside her, immediately hunching over with his hands on his knees, wheezing for air. She realized he must have been struggling to try and catch her, but then a more pressing thought crossed her mind.

"Malek! Why did you follow me?!" She said, her voice rising in volume. She realized what she was doing right now was probably a death wish; no person who was sane would be running towards their natural predator. So she couldn't understand why Malek had followed her.

"What do you mean?! Am I supposed to just let my best friend charge to her death?!" Haruka jumped, Malek had screamed at her. She looked astonished at the tears strolling down his face, his breathing becoming even more jagged as he tried to hold back his crying. "Haru… what are you doing? We should be running away…" He let out a sob, letting his head fall down, his face disappearing out of sight.

She looked down at her shoes, unable to look at him without feeling uncomfortable. What was she doing? She should be running in the opposite direction like so many other people were, screaming about getting away from the titans and running eagerly to evacuate, like soldiers were directing citizens to. But she couldn't get her smiling mother's face out of her head; she had to know that woman would be ok. Even if it meant facing that man that repulsed her.

"My mom…." Haruka finally choked out. "I want to make sure my mom is ok…"

She lifted her gaze back to her best friend. His eyes were looking at her, his tears had stopped, but he was still breathing erratically. His face was blotched red from crying, but he seemed to have calmed down from his previous emotional outburst. She fully expected him to be looking at her as if she was ludicrous right now, but he didn't. Instead he looked at her with a look she could only interpret as sympathetic.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Haruka didn't even have time to answer as he grabbed her hand, practically dragging her as he took off sprinting towards her house. She could feel his hand shaking as it gripped on to hers, and she knew that he was scared. She didn't blame him, if they didn't hurry the titans would probably be what was waiting at Haruka's house instead of her mom.

The house was eerily quiet when they reached it, neither her mother's or her father's voices could be heard coming from within. Haruka felt her stomach tighten a bit, hopefully that meant her parents had escaped. But she had to check to be sure, she had to look in to her house and be positive.

She nervously let go of Malek's hand, approaching the house slowly. She could feel herself shaking, the screams of humans filling her head and overwhelming her senses. She could smell the scent of blood in the air, and she grew frantic. She knew it was probably coming from the titans, who were slowly approaching closer to their position, but for some reason she couldn't shake off this foreboding feeling that she was getting. She slowly pushed open her door, and she really wished she hadn't.

What she saw made her angry and horrified at the same time. Sitting at their table, a bottle of whiskey in hand, was her father. He was drinking heartily, his face even redder than it had been when she and Malek had left the house. He was grinning, his glazed-over eyes looking at what she realized to be her mother's mutilated and naked form on the floor, in the very corner she had last set her eyes on her from the door. The bloody knife that her father had used laid on the table, the red glistening against the steel blade.

"Who's there?" She jumped, and brought her eyes to her father's face. He had an angry glare in his eyes, looking at her. That was the look he so often had used against her mother, finally having it turned upon her was chilling, to say the least. "Who the fuck are you, kid?" It never dawned on Haruka that just cutting her hair could have made her look like a completely different person, and it probably didn't help that she was sure that he was halfway through his second bottle of whiskey.

"Get out of my fucking house, didn't your parents ever tell you not to go in other people's houses?" He spat out, his voice like venom to her ears. She felt honestly scared right now, her mother was lying dead on the floor, her blood slowly seeping from her body still. The knife was dangerously close to her father, and there were titans outside… titans.

She didn't know why, but all of a sudden she screamed out. "Haven't you heard the screams?!" Her voice broke as she yelled. Why was she warning him? Shouldn't she want him to die now for killing her mother? Or was it the fact that he was her father, and now only parent, that was making her want to save him?

"What screams?" She couldn't believe this man couldn't hear the screams of agony and terror outside right now. She could hear them clearly through the door right now, and she felt tears welling in her eyes. She didn't know what possessed her to, but she dashed up to him, grabbing his arm and attempting to pull him to his feet. She had to get him out of here, she had to get him to safety with her and Malek.

"Take your hands off me you bastard!" She heard him yell and then she felt her right cheek sting. It wasn't until she was on the floor, looking up at the drunken man in to his blood-shot eyes, that she realized he had struck her so hard she had fell on the floor. "Boy, if you don't get the fuck out of here right now, I'll kill you!" He roared, but she didn't stop. She lunged forward, latching on to his leg, holding on tightly despite his screaming and kicking her with his free leg, tears streaming down her face.

"Please! You're going to die if you stay here!" She screamed out. She felt the edges of her vision getting blurry, and the screams and her father's voice all seemed to be melting into one. She felt a warm liquid coming down from her head, which she thought was weird. It hurt, everytime he kicked her he aimed for her stomach or her head, and she sputtered out blood after the fourth kick to her stomach.

"Pl...ease…" She choked out, feeling her voice starting to get weaker. "I d-don't want to be… alone…" And her vision went black.

 **xXx**

Her head hurt. It felt like an elephant was sitting down and getting back up and sitting down on it. Over and over again. Her stomach didn't feel too hot either, it felt like a wrecking ball had decided it needed to wreck her abdomen. Everything was dark, too. Was this death? Was she currently in the stomach of a titan? She was almost afraid to open her eyes. She didn't want to see what could have been around her.

However, she knew she'd have to. So ever so slowly she let her eyes open, letting them adjust to the light that was filtering in above her. She felt herself slowly swaying, as if on a giant swing or in a rocking cradle. It felt nice. Maybe she was on a cloud in heaven? She wouldn't mind that.

But when her eyes finally focused, and she realized that the sound of crazed muttering and screams were all around her, that she realized she wasn't in heaven. Hell, she wasn't even in a titan's stomach, unless you could see the sky in a titan's stomach. She realized that she was on a boat, slowly drifting forward. Malek was kneeling over her, holding something cold on her forehead. She didn't mind, it made her head pound less.

Malek's eyes lit up when he realized that she was staring up at him. "Grandma!" He said loudly, a smiling. She really wished he hadn't of said that so loud, it made the elephant sitting on her head angry and start stomping up and down on it instead. "He woke up!" Then she saw an ageing woman with grey hair come in to her eyesight, shooing Malek away. He looked reluctant to, but he did back off a bit.

"Poor dear." The older woman cooed, reaching down and putting her hand on the wet object on her head, where Malek had removed his hand. Haruka knew who this woman was, it was Malek's grandmother. She had never met the woman, but Malek talked about her often; she was caring but strict, always getting on him about various things. "Malek said he had been running to come to the evacuation, when he came across you bleeding in the street, looking like this…"

Haruka groaned. She had tried to sit up, but her head and stomach immediately began to scream in protest. Malek's grandmother pushed her gently back on to her back. Haruka realized that Malek must have lied to her about what happened, but she wondered why. It was no secret that Haruka's father was scum, and it wasn't like Haruka would have been mad Malek had told his grandmother that her father was pretty much kicking her to death.

"What's your name, boy?" That's when she realized why he lied. His grandma probably didn't recognize Haruka, let alone think that she was a girl right now. It's not like the woman had ever met her, either. He was probably just trying to abide by her wishes by lying about it, since Haruka had just stated that she wanted to be a boy now. And from the stories Malek told her of his grandma and mom, they wanted Malek and her to get married and have 3 sons or something like that.

"H-Haruka…" Haruka croaked out, her throat burning. She also tasted something irony in her mouth, and she realized it was probably the taste of blood. She had been coughing it up, so it wasn't odd. She was just surprised the taste remained for however long she had been unconscious.

His grandma looked surprised at her name, looking at Malek with a questioning look. Malek looked a bit panicked for a second, but he quickly replaced it with a puzzled look. "Wow, this boy has the same name as Haru…" He said, Haruka had to admit his acting was pretty good right now. "I wonder what happened to Haru?" Haruka wasn't sure if his grandmother was going to buy it, but she looked back down at her, seemingly accepting that it was just a coincidence that their names were the same.

"We have to assume the worst, I fear…" His grandmother said, her fingers gently stroking the side of Haruka's face. She didn't know why, but this was calming her. "I haven't seen Haruka nor her parents on the boat, or anywhere near the evacuation point. They even live closer to the wall then us… it's very likely that…" Malek's grandmother trailed off, but she knew what she was thinking. She was thinking it was likely that they had been eaten.

Now that she thought about it though, the boat thing made sense. The gentle rocking was obviously the water under them, and it would also explain why Haruka's back was growing stiff. She was laying on the wooden deck of the boat. She also finally realized they weren't alone, they were packed with almost a hundred other people on the boat, and a lot of them were glaring at her for taking up more room with her laying down.

Haruka exhaled slowly, going to sit up. Malek's grandmother's face had an obvious look of concern as she struggled to get up, trying to ignore the searing pain in her stomach. "Honey, you should be lying down, your head took a pretty good beating and it was bleeding…" She heard her say to her, but she ignored her. She just wanted those people to stop looking at her as if she was a selfish monster.

"I-I'm fine. " She stammered through the pain. It hurt to even breathe right now, but she told herself to suck it up. She knew there was no way in hell that Malek's grandmother would allow her to sit up if she started whining about being in pain. So instead she slowly crawled to near the cabin of the boat, propping herself up against it and closing her eyes, trying to will the pain away slowly.

"Hey, Haru." She looked up to see Malek looking down at her. He sat down next to her, bringing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around it. His grandmother had gone off to yell at some unruly children who seemed to be lacking their parents, so they finally had a chance to be alone and talk.

"What happened to me…?" Haruka said, letting her eyes drift back down again. She just realized the side of her face stung too, and she probably looked horrible right now. People kept looking and pointing at her, whispering amongst themselves as if she was a zoo attraction. She couldn't be bothered to even look and glare right now though, she was too busy trying to calm the elephant.

"Your dad was kicking you and beating you." Malek said, his voice barely above a whisper. She knew he was prolly trying to make sure no one else could hear them, but it was hard to even hear him over the crying and yelling of the other occupants of the boat currently. "I heard you scream and came up the steps, a-and…" She opened her eyes, looking at him. He had tears in his eyes, as if he was having trouble recalling the events without breaking down completely.

"a-and you were on the ground Haru… you weren't even awake anymore… but he was still kicking you… h-he was still hitting you!" Malek's voice grew louder as he went. She felt her head start to pound again. However, from how he sounded, she knew that it must have been traumatic for him to witness, so she didn't bother telling him to quiet down.

"T-Then something happened…" He buried his face in to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably now. Haruka couldn't help it, no matter how much pain she was in it hurt her to see her friend crying. She winced as she raised her hand, rubbing his back in small circles, trying to ignore the pain from moving.

"I g-got angry…" He hiccuped out. "And I ran in screaming at him to stop hurting you… t-then a titan ripped the roof off your h-house…" Haruka felt her eyes widen. A titan? How were they even here, still alive when a titan had gotten that close to them? He turned his face to look at her, obviously distressed by something. She wanted to know how he managed to drag her and himself to the boat when he had come so close to one of those things.

"I-It p-p-picked up your dad and i-it… it bit his head off in front of me!" Malek said, burying his face in his knees again. "I-I picked you up and ran, I d-didn't even look back, and I just ran here…" She understood now what was wrong.

He was feeling guilty.

She sighed, moving her hand to his shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly. He looked up to her, sniffling. His eyes looked horrible, from the heavy crying he was just doing. But she cracked him a small smile. "I'm just glad you were able to save me and you, Malek… screw that bastard. He deserved to be eaten." He smiled softly to her, seeming to calm down. He looked up at the sky as she slid her hand off his shoulder, bringing it to rest on her stomach yet again. She felt a lot better now that she wasn't holding her aching arm up.

"Well we're going to be inside Wall Rose. We're being evacuated there right now." Haruka nodded, she figured that was where their evacuation was heading. The only place they really had to go now was deeper within the walls. It almost made her inwardly laugh, a lot of people she knew would have killed to get deeper within the walls, but they probably never would have dreamed that it would be cause of the very thing they were trying to get away from in the first place.

"Malek!" They both looked up, Malek's grandmother had come over, looking out of breath. She looked panicked, as if something dreadful had just happened. Haruka wondered what it could be, and she didn't have to wait long to find out.

"Your mother…" His grandmother broke down now, falling to her knees in front of Malek, crying. He could only look at her bewildered, looking a cross between scared and confused at the same time. Haruka supposed he had never seen her break down in such a way, from the way he described his grandmother she was a woman who very rarely let any emotions of sadness or pain show through her tough exterior.

"W-What about mom? Did you find her?" Malek questioned, then it hit Haruka. She hadn't realized that his mom had been absent so far. Haruka already could tell what news was coming from how his grandmother was behaving, but Malek seemed to have no clue. She couldn't tell if it was because he was that naive, or if he was just trying to deny what he knew was coming.

"S-She was eaten… your mother is gone!" Malek's grandmother howled with her crying, screaming out the news. Everyone on the boat was looking at them now, their eyes especially fixated upon Malek. He sat there, his eyes wide with a dumbfounded expression upon his face. Haruka found herself willing for him to change his expression, to blink, scream, get angry, cry, anything besides sit there looking shell-shocked right now. But he didn't move or make any sign of planning on changing his facial expression, even when his grief-stricken grandmother grabbed on to him and buried her face in to the crook of his neck.

Haruka knew why he was making that face, even if she didn't want to admit it to herself. He had realized the thing just now that perhaps everyone on the boat was fighting to forget, to push aside, to not acknowledge. That was probably why everyone was looking away uneasily from him now, the whole boat silent except for the muffled sobs of Malek's grandmother. Haruka couldn't even keep looking at him, she had to look down at her lap.

They were realizing that their homes were gone. Their old lives were gone. Life was never going to be the same, all because of that giant titan. No matter how happy they all acted to be getting to go in to Wall Rose, they all knew deep inside that they would miss their carefree days with their loved ones. Many of them had suffered casualties within their families, losing lovers, friends, sisters, brothers, parents… all things that were irreplaceable, and that they would never recover, even if they evacuated into that wall and didn't see another titan for another century.

Their homes were gone, all in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Everything they had worked towards and knew was now crumbling before their eyes. Haruka felt her eyes start to sting too now. Great, now she was crying also. She wasn't crying about the pain she felt all over her body, or for Malek's loss of his mother though. She was crying because she finally had to face the fact. Her home, her life, everything she thought was normal at the beginning of that morning, was now gone.


	3. Chapter 3

**III**

It had been three years since that day, but for Malek, at least in his nightmares, it felt like it was still haunting him. It wasn't an everyday occurrence, but it also wasn't unusual for him to awake with a start, breathing heavily and covered in cold sweat. The nightmare wasn't even that exaggerated; it was just him reliving that dreadful day again in his head. But it still got to him every night he had it.

His grandmother took a bit to get over the shock of losing his mother that day, but when she did she wasted no time in sorting out their new situation. She immediately offered Haruka a new place to belong with her and Malek, and the three settled together within Wall Rose. Their new living situation was considerably worse than the one they had to leave behind in Shigasana, but it was enough for the two children and the ageing woman. She would sew clothes to support them, and put food on the table.

Food, of course, was what sucked up most of the already meager income Malek's grandmother managed to scrape up. With the loss of Wall Maria came the loss of 1/3rd of the land the circular settlement had owned. This lead to a food shortage unparalleled to the one that they already faced before the loss of land. There had even been a death campaign to alleviate the population as well as alleviate the food issue, Malek's grandmother managing to avoid being drafted due to her age and the fact she had two children to support.

Haruka kept her hair short and messy, sticking to her new boy persona. Even when she started to go through puberty she managed to keep it a secret from Malek's grandmother, she started to use bandages to wrap her growing chest to make sure she still look flat chested, and took care of any other matters that came with being a growing woman in private, or with the help of Malek. He was amazed at how sneaky the two of them had become, and how good they were at hiding things from his grandmother now. Hiding your gender from your guardian was certainly no easy task, especially when it was a woman who would notice when even the slightest of things were off.

Today though, was a day Malek's grandmother had been dreading. It was the day that Haruka and Malek had been murmuring about to each other for months now, and the day that his grandmother had been angry about from the day the two had told her about it. Today was the day, that the two left to join the military.

His grandmother paled at the thought, immediately screaming at them and forbidding them to go and join when she finally got Malek to admit what they had done. Haruka, as always, was a silent onlooker when it came to this argument that Malek and his grandmother had on the subject. She sat silently reading a book as the two yelled at each other.

"YOU WILL NOT GO JOIN THAT DAMN MILITARY!" Malek's grandmother boomed, shattering the glass she was holding in the sink. She cursed under her breath, quickly tending to her now bleeding hand. Malek had just uneasily admitted that the two kids had already signed up, and notified her of the date they were to begin their training.

"But, grandma-" Malek started, his eyes watching as she wrapped a dish cloth around her hand. "We want to make a difference! And if I can manage to get in the military police brigade, I can get us in to Wall Sina! And you won't have to work so hard to just keep us going!" Haruka looked up, her eyes examining Malek. She knew that was why he wanted to go, he wanted to make life easier on his grandmother in that way. The people in Wall Sina never struggled how the people in Wall Rose did, and Malek sincerely wanted to help his grandmother. She had already given so much to them.

But Haruka, of course, had a very different goal. Her goal was to join the survey corps, as it was three years ago. The events then only fueled her want to contribute and fight the titans, and she had no plans on trying to get in to Wall Sina to live a better life. She would rather die outside the walls then caged even further in them. She sincerely hoped that this argument wouldn't include her, but of course as soon as she thought that his grandmother turned to look at her, her eyes narrowing.

"Are you planning on trying for the police brigade too?" Haruka swore this woman could read minds or something sometimes. Or perhaps it was because Haruka had been oddly quiet up until this point, as if trying to pretend she didn't really exist now.

"I plan on joining the survey corps." She said quietly. And as she predicted, this made his grandmother go in to another ballistic fit. She had thrown the bloody rag into the sink, and turned around, a fire lit up in her eyes. Her face was going red, and she was shaking. The only other time Haruka had seen the woman so angry was when Malek had broken the necklace that contained a picture of his mother and father in it that belonged to his grandmother, they never heard the end of that one for a few days.

"Like hell am I letting you join that good for nothing section of that damn military!" His grandmother spat out. Haruka flinched. It was very rare for her to be receiving the anger of the woman, it was usually Malek who was in trouble if anyone was. Haruka supposed it was due to the fact that she wanted to make sure Malek prospered and had grandchildren for her, meanwhile as Haruka wasn't blood related to her, she could let Haruka slack a bit. "You might as well just hang yourself now, boy."

Haruka didn't know why, but that annoyed her when Malek's grandmother said that. She gripped on to her book tighter, looking in to the older woman's eyes, her eyes showing a fire starting too. Malek, at this point, took the liberty of backing out of the way of both of their vision. He knew that the argument that was going to ensue was going to be insane, both of them went nuts when they were angry.

"Well, I'm going to join that good for nothing section of that damn military if I want!" Haruka said loudly, her eyes screaming 'try me' to the older woman. Malek's grandmother's eyes narrowed at this statement out of Haruka, her hands moving to rest on her hips, standing in the position she usually stood in when Malek was about to get disciplined. She was an old-school woman, and thus was not against using physical discipline. Haruka was hardly afraid of this though, seeing the home she originally came from.

"I worked my ass off to support you and Malek, and you wanna go marching off to your death? Are you serious right now?" His grandmother looked as if she wanted to have Haruka be struck down by lightning on the spot, but Haruka was returning her glare with a look that was just as friendly, if not a little less friendly.

"I'm dead serious. I'll do what I want with my life, and what I want to do is join the survey corps. And you will NOT change my mind!"

Haruka and his grandmother had barely spoken a word to each other since that argument. Whenever his grandmother wanted to say something, she would always go through Malek. "Malek, tell that ungrateful child…" Meanwhile Haruka would shoot her a glare and poor Malek would have to play messenger between the two, even if they were standing right next to each other. Even on the day they were to leave for training, their trainee military uniforms on, Malek's grandmother did not say goodbye to Haruka, nor did Haruka say goodbye to her. His grandmother said a tearful goodbye to him, hugging him tightly, and off they went.

Which led them to this moment. Right now, standing next to two other boys on either side of him, one hand behind his back and the other on his chest in a salute, Malek was at their training orientation. He could see Haruka out of the corner of his eye, doing the same salute, her face stoic and unmoving. She didn't even bat a lash when their bald training instructor started screaming at the poor girl next to her, verbally abusing her to the point the girl broke down crying. She ran off leaving the spot to the right of Haruka vacant. He had been doing this for about 30 minutes now, slowly making his way through all the recruits. Malek could tell that a lot of them were losing their guts; three including the girl who just ran away crying had already left to become food gatherers instead.

Finally the drill instructor made his way to Haruka, eyeing her up and down. "Mr. Greiner." The man said, as if he was about to start screaming at her too now. But instead he simply motioned for her to turn to face everyone else, and continued on. Malek was amazed. Why were certain people not getting the talk, but others were? He was even one of the people who were skipped over, simply getting a "Mr. Johnson." and being turned around to face his fellow trainees. He no longer had Haruka in his sight, but what he set his eyes on instead was more than enough for him to look at instead.

He was looking at a tall boy, who seemed almost unsure of himself as he stood there saluting. The boy's green eyes followed the drill sergeant's movements, as if dreading him coming over to himself. Malek was positive that he probably was giving off the same look as this boy was just giving a few moments ago. He had short dark hair, and he was taller than everyone else he was standing with. Malek thought he was cute, to say the least. He was sure he was visibly disappointed when the drill sergeant turned him around, as he couldn't look at the boy anymore. He really hoped he would get to learn his name.

Finally, when the drill Sergeant had gone through all the trainees, he stopped in front of them, looking up at them. He looked visibly aged, with only a bit of hair on his chin to indicate he ever had hair to begin with. His skin was tan, his piercing eyes scanning over all of the young people standing in front of him.

"My name is Keith Shadis, and I'll be overseeing your training." He boomed out. He narrowed his eyes, looking around more, as if he was trying to see something that no one else could right now. "I"ll tell you now, I doubt that even 2/3rds of you runts will even make it out of the three years of training you face." Malek could feel the boy next to him cower a bit in fear. He had gotten it pretty good from Shadis, being told he was pretty much worthless and a failure who did nothing but consume the precious oxygen other useful humans needed to live. Malek felt kinda bad for the boy, and knew in the back of his head that he was probably not going to be part of that 2/3rds.

"But those of you who do manage to make it," He started. It seemed as if he knew something they didn't, cause he was looking at specific people already. Malek was one of them, Shadis looking right in to his dark blue eyes. Did this mean that Shadis could tell just by looking and speaking with them who would make it? But he hadn't even spoken a word to Malek besides his last name. Malek felt very confused by all this. "Will become soldiers who will be worthy to protect this city and willing to lay down their lives for humanity."

"Now-" All of a sudden the drill sergeant stopped, looking at a particular person. Everyone turned to see what was so important that it made him stop talking; this man didn't seem like the type to stop for much. Malek's eyes widened when he set site on what Shadis was looking at. Standing there, looking right to left as if she had committed murder, was a girl. She was munching on what looked to be a potato, and rather loudly too. She probably could have gotten away with it if she hadn't been making the most satisfied sounds he'd ever heard as she ate.

"SASHA BLOUSE!" Shardis boomed, moving forward to the girl. She jumped, almost dropping the potato, doing a sort of clumsy salute, her bangs flying in to her eyes and crumbs from the potato covering her tan face. She had her brown hair tied back in a messy ponytail. She looked as if she was a deer caught in headlights, her eyes never focusing on Shardis.

"What the hell are you eating?" Shardis said, his voice considerably softer compared to before, but still thick with annoyance. Sasha gulped, as if she was afraid he'd take out a gun and shoot her on the spot, as she slowly took the potato from it's hiding spot behind her back, holding it in front of her for Shardis to look at.

"A-A boiled potato from the kitchen, sir!" She stammered out. She looked as if she was in pain as she did it, but she broke the potato into two uneven pieces, holding out the smaller piece in front of her towards him. "Y-You can have some too, sir!" Malek was taken aback by how bold she was there, if he got caught eating in the middle of his speech, he would have denied even having the potato.

Sasha probably thought that's what she should have done when he informed her she was going to run laps until he told her to stop and was to skip dinner.

 **xXx**

"Wow, she's still running…" Malek said, looking out the window at the obviously tired form of the girl. She wasn't even bothering to lift her arms up as she ran anymore, running in a sort of hunched-over manner. He could tell she was panting heavily. He was currently sitting at a table, Haruka across from him eating her piece of bread, not seeming interested at watching Sasha do her punishment. Malek himself had a piece of bread in hand, but he almost felt bad sitting there and eating dinner while Sasha was out there suffering currently.

"She's being used as an example." Haruka said, her mouth full of bread. Her voice came out very muffled, and Malek turned his attention to her. Haruka definitely had no manners. She often would talk with her mouth full and be generally rude to elders and people in higher authority, let alone people who were within her rank. That's why she had no qualms about back-talking his grandmother back then, when the second cold war had broken out in their small home. Malek knew she wasn't always like that, but going through such an event probably changed her that way. It was hard to lose everything, especially the way they did. The garrison corps hadn't even attempted to save the wall, they simply high-tailed it faster than perhaps some of the civilians did to evacuation that day. "That's probably some of what we can expect if we mess up too."

"You saw a titan?!" Malek and Haruka grew silent, looking over to see who had said that. They noticed a small group of people gathered around a boy. He had chocolate brown hair and green eyes, and his skin was tan like Sasha who was still running her laps. Malek thought he looked a bit familiar, and then it hit him. He must also be from Shigasana, considering more and more trainees were gathering around him and asking questions about titans to him. He kept on a serious face as he answered the questions, looking at each person he was replying to directly. "Weren't you scared?"

"Of course I was scared." The boy said, sounding as if that was as normal as the sky being blue and the grass being green. "But I want to beat them. I'm tired of being trapped within these walls." Everyone grew silent, no one speaking. Malek looked at the boy in awe. No one had ever said such things before, and he found it fascinating to hear. It had never occurred to him, wanting to go outside the walls. He was born within these walls, so it was normal. He was taught to be happy that the walls were keeping humanity in and the titans out.

"That's why I plan on joining the survey corps." Everyone gasped at his words, even Malek. The only people who didn't gasp were Haruka, who had also planned on joining the survey corps, and the two people sitting on either side of him. The three looked to be close, so Malek wondered if those two also planned on joining the survey corps with him too.

"Why bother joining the survey corps?" Everyone immediately turned their attention to another boy. He was sitting at the table next to the one that currently was home to all of the commotion, and he looked like a cocky guy. He had a face that was longer than most, with sharp black eyes and light brown hair atop his head. He was tan, like a lot of other guys he saw today Malek realized, and he was grinning.

"I plan on getting in the top 10 so I can enlist in the Military Police Brigade." The boy with green eyes seemed annoyed with this, narrowing his eyes at the other one. It almost seemed as if the boy had something against that branch of the military, but he could also very well have just found that kid to be annoying also. Malek had to admit he wasn't making a great first impression.

"Why? So you can live a cushy and lazy life deeper within the walls?" Malek looked to Haruka. Her eyes were watching the boy intently, as if she was judging his resolve. Malek knew she felt the same way about the military police, even if she wouldn't openly admit it to him, considering he was also aiming to join it at the moment. The long-faced boy scowled, standing up, moving closer to the green-eyed one.

"Just cause I don't want to charge off to my death, I'm lazy huh?" He snarled, coming ever closer to the green eyed boy. Malek knew a fight was about to break out, judging by the atmosphere right now.

"The military police are a waste of space." The green-eyed boy said, standing up himself. That was when the long-faced boy grabbed him by the collar, pulling his fist back ready to punch him. The crowd was backing away from the two, murmuring about how they were going to fight and asking if he was really going to hit him. That's when the girl sitting to the right of the green-eyed boy stood, grabbing the fist the long-faced boy was raising. She looked at him with a glare, before grabbing the green-eyed boy by the collar and dragging him towards the door.

"Come on, Eren, you don't need to be starting a fight the first night." And the two disappeared, the long-faced boy standing there blushing. It was painfully obvious he had been taken by the girl's beauty, she was quite attractive, even Malek had to admit. She had black hair that reached past her shoulders, and piercing black eyes. Her skin was pale like Haruka's, and Malek wondered inwardly if Haruka would be that pretty if she let her hair grow and wasn't doing the whole 'pretend to be a boy' thing.

"Eren, huh…?" He looked over, finally remembering Haruka existed across from him. She was looking at the door that the girl and Eren had left out of, looking thoughtful. "It'll be interesting to see where he goes." She said, mostly to herself. Malek followed her gaze to the door. He had to admit he thought the same; he was the first person beside Haruka he had met who had ambitions to join the survey corps, and admitted it so openly too.

Malek let his eyes scan across the mess hall now, looking at all the occupants. No one was showing any of the shock of being yelled at by Shardis now, talking merrily over their food or having already left to go to be food gatherers. They all looked so sad and upset, riding away on that carriage after supposed that they had all believed the sergeant, believing they were worth nothing and not meant to fight titans. Their self-esteem was probably low to let such things get to them. Malek supposed it was good to weed them out though, since if you lacked confidence you most certainly would be a titan's next meal.

That's when his eyes set their sights on that boy, the one he had seen earlier during orientation. He was sitting with a muscular-looking blonde boy with small eyes, and another blonde girl who looked disinterested with everything around her. He let his eyes shift to Haruka, who had the very same look plastered on her face. She seemed bored now that the commotion was over, looking out the window at the stars.

He turned his attention back to the boy, who seemed to be quietly smiling to the blonde boy as he was talking. He looked so cute, Malek couldn't help the blush that was creeping on to his cheeks. He knew that if he kept looking, he most certainly would turn into a tomato in front of everyone, so he quickly turned back to face Haruka, looking down at his fingers as he twiddled them. Why was he getting so nervous already when he wasn't even near that guy right now?

"Are you ok?"

Malek jumped, he was jarred out of his thoughts by Haruka, who was now eyeing him in a concerned manner. He quickly brought his hands up to his cheeks, feeling the heat radiating off them and covered them, puffing out his cheeks as if he was pouting. He was trying to pretend to make silly faces to Haruka right now to hide the fact he still had that blush on his face, but he could tell from the glint in her eyes that he was already found out.

"Are you…. blushing?" He groaned in his head. Haruka had a grin plastered on her face now, and she was leaning in closer to him, looking at where he was just looking. She always got like this when she knew he was trying to hide something, she would immediately look to find out what it was that he was trying to keep secret. He had to admit there was close to no point in trying to keep secrets from her anymore, she always found out one way or another what was going on.

"So what eye candy are you eyeing now?" Malek felt his face explode in red, the warm radiating all over his face from his cheeks. Was it really that obvious that he had been eyeing someone? He buried his face in his arms, praying to god Haruka didn't realize who he was looking at, the last time she had realized who he was attracted to, he was forced into a very awkward meeting with said person, whom he promptly avoided ever since. He knew Haruka was just trying to help him, but god did he wish she didn't try sometimes.

"Ah, is it him?" Malek turned his head a bit in his arms, peering out to see where Haruka was looking. And sure enough she was staring right at the boy he was so taken with at the moment, not even trying to hide her icy blue stare. Malek immediately sat up and took her face into his hands, turning her to face him.

"Don't stare at him like that, he'll notice!" Malek said frantically, stealing glances toward the boy's table. All three of them didn't seem to notice that Malek and Haruka were talking about/looking at them, continuing their conversation/bored look. Haruka grinned even wider, and Malek realized the horrible mistake he had just made.

He just pretty much told her it was him.

"Ah, so I was right." Her voice held a certain air of victory, and Malek was panicking on the inside. He knew what was coming next, but before he could even open his mouth to try to prevent it he already found himself being dragged by Haruka over to that table. He tried to get away without looking suspicious but it was no use, she had an iron grip on his wrist and they were already standing in front of the three people occupying the table, Haruka smiling happily to them as Malek felt himself cower a bit under their gaze.

"Hi, I'm Haruka Greiner!" Haruka said, smiling to the three people looking at them as if they were nuts. Malek had to admit they probably did look weird, he was still trying to wrench her hand off his wrist so he could run away, his wrist was now starting to turn an angry shade of red from all the twisting he was doing. "My friend here is quite shy, so I thought I would try to introduce him to some people." Malek shot Haruka a glare, that she only returned with a wink. He knew that he was now far past the point of having a say in the matter.

Surprisingly, the three people staring at them didn't get up and walk away. They didn't even give them dirty looks. The muscular blonde smiled, while the boy he was eyeing smiled shyly too. The girl's face didn't move a bit, but she didn't make any notion to imply that they were annoying her or even that she thought they were being weird. She just looked at them.

"I'm Reiner Braun." The muscular blonde said, smiling up at them. Malek was taken aback, he didn't expect to actually be going through introductions right now. Especially with someone smiling about it. "This guy next to me is Bertholdt Fubar, and this quiet chick is Annie Leonhart." Bertholdt smiled giving a little wave, as Annie simply nodded letting them know that was in fact her identity. That's when everyone's, even Annie's, attention turned to Malek. He realized finally that he was the only one who had not been introduced, as Haruka hadn't bothered. He sent a short glare to her as she just smiled, finally stopping his struggle to get her to release his wrist. She let go when he did, he knew she did because he wouldn't dare escape now.

"I-I'm Malek Johnson." He wanted to slap himself for stammering, but he felt all sorts of nervous with Bertholdt's gaze upon him. He looked down, trying to fight the warmth coming to his cheeks. He was hoping that Haruka would happily drag him away now, but to his horror, she did the very opposite. She sat opposite of Reiner, patting the spot next to her on the bench, which was right in front of Bertholdt. Malek felt himself gulp, slowly sitting down, trying to look everywhere but at Bertholdt.

"Nice to meet you guys." Haruka said, smiling warmly. She looked to Malek, her eyes curiously looking him over to see how he was faring at this point. Malek had to fight everything in him to not yell at her for doing unnecessary things. However, when he looked up to Bertholdt, who was smiling at him, Malek had a thought.

Maybe Haruka hadn't screwed up that bad.


	4. Chapter 4

**IV**

Since the orientation training had been hard. The trainees had known that this would be the case from Shardis's opening speech, but it still didn't keep a lot of the trainees from complaining. A lot were especially complaining about all the running they were doing, and they had even lost some more people from their ranks, making the 104th trainee squad even smaller as the days passed by. Haruka and Malek, however, were finding their time training to be enjoyable, especially upon making so many new friends.

Malek really liked hanging out with Bertholdt, Reiner and Annie. Haruka, as far as he could tell, seemed to enjoy it also. They often ate together now during meals and made small talk during their free moments now. Malek still felt shy around the other trainees he found though; Haruka however seemed to not mind talking to the others. Malek felt like every day she was introducing him to a new person.

"Hey Haru!" They were sitting together, for once just the two of them, eating lunch. Haruka had been pouring over a book that she had taken out pertaining to titans, absent-mindedly eating a piece of bread as she did, muttering 'yes' and 'oh' and 'I see' to Malek as he had been gushing about Bertholdt to her. This was one of the few times they had gotten to be alone, so Malek wasn't all too happy when they were approached by the blonde boy with blue eyes. He was holding a book under his arm, smiling to her.

"Hey, Armin." She replied, not even looking up to Armin as she spoke. Armin wasted no time immediately sitting across from her and placing his book open on the table, motioning for Haruka to look up from her book. Malek half expected her not to, but was surprised when she did, looking at the boy called Armin curiously. Malek couldn't deny that he felt slight jealousy flaring up within him. He then remembered that this Armin kid had even called her Haru, that was a nickname that Malek had almost always had exclusive rights to.

"I found this really good book and thought you'd want to read up on it too!" Armin's eyes sparkled as he talked about the book, as if he was giving his mother a new picture to put on her fridge. Haruka didn't seem to notice how excited Armin was though, as she simply took the book and turned it so she could read a few lines, her gaze focusing on the text and sketches in the book.

"Wow, Armin! This book is really detailed." Haruka said, her voice full of awe. She let her gaze come back up to Armin, looking as if he had brought her water in a desert. "Where did you find this?" Armin smiled warmly, explaining that he pulled in some favors with the keeper of the books due to his excellent academics. Him and Haruka, Malek had notice, were usually competing for top of that part of training. Armin usually beating her out though. Then again Haruka seemed to be good at any part of training they went through, Malek thought almost bitterly. She even obviously seemed to be better at making friends.

"Oh, you're Malek, right?" Malek snapped out of his thought, his eyes settling dumbfounded upon Armin's blue eyes staring into his. "I see you with Haru a lot, but I never got a chance to introduce myself to you until now. I'm Armin Arlert." Armin smiled and held a hand out for Malek to shake, which Malek took almost too slowly. They awkwardly shook hands, Haruka watching curiously. A few moments of silence had gone by before Haruka finally spoke up.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself too, Malek…?" Haruka asked, looking at him with amusement. Malek didn't know why but he suddenly felt annoyed, as if she had just said something insulting to him. He stood up with a huff, pushing the bench him and Haruka were sitting on back and making her almost fall off it. He turned, and before he could even stop to think he said:

"Sorry I'm not a social butterfly like you, Haruka." He almost cringed at how venomously he had spat out her full name and stormed away from the table, leaving Haruka and Armin sitting there stunned. Malek didn't know what had come over him, but it was too late to take it back, and it had made things so awkward for himself he found himself avoiding her after that incident.

"Why don't you just apologize?" Malek had been sitting with Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie, eating while looking sadly at a table at the other side of the room. Ever since that incident Haruka seemed to have realized Malek was avoiding her, and stopped trying to come in to contact with him all-together. She had even taken to sitting with Armin during meals now, along with Eren and the black-haired girl whose name he still hadn't learned himself. Bertholdt was looking at Malek with concern, as Reiner had asked why he wouldn't just apologize. Annie was being silent as she usually was.

"Cause…" Malek trailed off. He wasn't even sure why he wouldn't just apologize. Maybe he was scared? He had never gone so long without speaking to Haruka, and never gotten mad at her over such a stupid thing either. He almost felt like maybe she was mad at him for getting mad, and would scoff at him if he tried to apologize. She seemed to smile a lot more and have fun with the three she was sitting with now anyways.

"You obviously miss talking to him." Malek turned to look at Reiner. Reiner, of course, had been highly annoyed with the whole situation. Who could blame him, he was Haruka's friend too and she had all been avoiding himself and their group since Malek had taken to clinging to them all the time now. "So just apologize already man, so we can all get on with our lives."

Malek knew that he was being stupid right now, not just apologizing to put them all out of their misery. However a part of him wanted her to approach him first, to say sorry for seeming so happy to be talking to Armin. For hurting his feelings. But he knew it was him who was in the wrong here and hoping for that situation was very immature and childish of him. "How do I approach Haru…?" Malek groaned out, slamming his head on the table.

"Well, you guys have been best friends since you were little, right?" Bertholdt's voice made Malek look up. He liked his voice, and liked talking to Bertholdt. However, he very rarely could work up the courage to strike up a conversation with the boy. He was just regretful that one of the few times they talked had to be about this thought. "I'm not seeing why you guys can't easily patch it up…"

Malek turned his attention back to Haruka. She looked to be talking to Armin and Eren right now rather animatedly about something, her hands flailing every which way as if trying to describe something they had never seen before. Malek longed to be the one having the conversation with her currently, however he was instead not even speaking to her. It almost killed him inside.

"We have three dimensional maneuver gear training today." Malek's head immediately snapped to Annie, who was looking at Malek as if what she had just said was the answer to life. Malek didn't understand why she was giving him this look, but he wasn't about to ask either. He never interrupted when Annie spoke to him, the event was so rare. "It would be a good time to approach him without Eren and Armin being there."

Malek swore Annie was a genius sometimes. Of course, it would be a good time, they were going to be spread out a fair bit and all trying to keep their balance and not trying to converse with each other. Of course Haruka would finally be alone for once and he could approach her. Half of his battle had been not wanting to admit he was jealous of Armin in front of Armin or his best friend.

"Annie, I love you." Malek said. Reiner snickered at the annoyed face that popped on to Annie's visage, while Bertholdt quietly smiled. Malek was determined to speak to Haruka and fix things. He was tired of being without his best friend.

xXx

The sun was blaring down on the trainees, who were now all grouped outside looking at Shardis. He was standing in his usual position, hands behind his back and his bald head glistening in the sun, his sunken eyes scanning over the crowd of trainees. He, like everyone else, knew that their numbers were getting smaller. But he didn't care, the people who were standing before him now were most likely the people who would prosper in the military anyways. Even if they didn't look like it.

"Ok, trainees!" He finally boomed out, silencing any murmuring that was occurring within the crowd of people. Everyone immediately stood at attention, doing the salute that they had so been accustomed to performing ever since the first time they congregated together in front of this man. "Today we're going to start your training with the 3dmg! We're not going to have you swinging through the air just yet, but we will have you in the air and balancing, to get a feel of who won't be cut out for being a soldier."

Malek could feel his insides twist with worry at those words. What if he wasn't cut out? Would the others what him be carted away in the wagon with the rest of the trainees who gave up? He thought bitterly at least they volunteered to leave, it would probably be humiliating to have to leave because you couldn't perform a task correctly. He could feel himself start shaking, as his nervousness was grabbing hold of him, until he felt a steadying hand on his shoulder. He looked to his right to Reiner, who was smiling reassuringly to him, as if silently telling him that it will be fine.

"Now I want you guys to pick one of these" Shardis motioned to behind him to the wooden structures that stood in the sun. They had straps and a pulley, obviously for lifting a person into the air. "and get your straps on. I or another person will be around to lift you into the air."

And with that not one person wasted time crowding up to the structures. Everyone was trying to get ones with their friends, hastily strapping into their gear while talking amongst themselves. Malek took this chance to break away from Bertholdt, Annie, and Reiner; they all went to a less crowded part as to not have to fight to be with each other. Malek however was fighting through the fray, trying to get a place next to Haruka, who he saw already strapping in to her gear. To his immense relief it seemed as if she had opted to just go for the first free one she saw instead of sticking with Armin, Eren, and the dark-haired girl, the three in question were no where in sight and Haruka happened to have no one occupying the wooden structure to her right. He immediately wasted no time pushing a particularly weak and mousey looking trainee out of the way as he tore towards it; the poor kid fell over right away. Malek didn't care though, he had his mind set on a mission currently.

Besides the poor kid who had dared get in his way earlier, no one else had to be pushed or shoved. Malek had gone up to the structure and started strapping in, eyes immediately looking over at Haruka. She didn't seem to notice that he was her neighbor, and if she had she was ignoring his existence currently. She was all strapped in and standing there, looking immensely bored and waiting for Shardis to come around. Said person was already making his way slowly towards them, people being lifted into the air and attempting to balance. So far everyone seemed to be doing an ok job, only a few swaying and losing balance.

Malek thought it better to try to strike up a conversation with her after Shardis had passed, as he was currently having the girl next to Haruka lifted into the air, watching intently as the scared looking trainee tried to keep her balance in the straps. She shook a bit but did not sway or fall, so Malek supposed she was doing pretty good considering it was her first time in the air. Shardis said nothing as he walked to Haruka, his sunken eyes studying the small black-haired individual.

"Greiner." Shardis finally spoke after what seemed like eons to Malek. Haruka didn't respond, only doing the salute that she was now accustomed to when being greeted by her superiors. Shardis seemed to take this as a ready, as he signaled his helper, a man who was a garrison soldier, to start turning the crank connected to the straps currently around Haruka. Her arms fell to her sides out of the salute as her feet left the ground, and Malek watched in awe as she was lifted into the air.

She didn't show any sign of even being bothered by the upward motion she was currently experiencing, her face remained remarkably stoic as she simply hung there, her icey blue eyes meeting with Shardis's sunken ones. Malek could have sworn a smile ghosted upon Shardis's face as he observed Haruka gracefully hanging there, but as soon as it came it was replaced by his usual serious frown, and he turned his attention to Malek suddenly, almost making Malek jump. He wondered if Shardis would reprimand him for gawking.

"Johnson." Malek immediately threw himself into a very stiff salute, feeling his nervousness well up inside him once more. It couldn't be that hard, could it…? Haruka had made it seem so easy, and he could feel her eyes on him now. It did nothing to ease him though, it only made the horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach worse.

Shardis seemed to stand there for all eternity, just looking at Malek as if he was trying to read something that no one else could see within him. Finally Shardis gave the signal for his helper, and Malek felt the feeling in his stomach jump into his throat and he tried to swallow it down. He felt the straps around his hips and thighs start to pull upward on him. It was happening. He was being slowly lifted to the air, his feet leaving the safety of solid ground.

He only knew one thing, this was definitely harder than Haruka had made it look. He immediately stopped doing the salute pose, his arms flying out to his sides on instinct as if he was trying to balance on a single stilt. He had close to no clue what to do with his legs so he put them in a position as if he was riding an imaginary surf board, and he felt his center of gravity dangerously swaying. He was managing to stay upright though, though he could tell by the look on Shardis's face his performance was not anything close to Haruka's, no smile even showed a sign of having a chance to appear on his face. He simply moved on, having the next trainee lifted into the air.

Malek knew that this was his chance now, the trainees already in the air were too busy trying to keep balance or talking to their neighbors, and Shardis was inching slowly farther and farther away as he advanced down the line. Careful not to lose his balance, he slowly turned his gaze to Haruka, who looked as if she was floating in the air without a care, her arms now crossed as she seemed to be staring up at the sky.

"H-Haru…" Malek didn't know why his voice cracked as he croaked out her name, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. It felt like slow motion as her eyes turned to meet his, her face not changing from the poker look she had been wearing so far during the training. She didn't say anything, only looked at him.

"I'm sorry…" Malek felt tears well into his eyes. "I-I'm so sorry Haru! Please talk to me!" He didn't know what was possessing him right now, all he knew was that he was wailing now, hiccuping and letting his crying consume him at the current moment. Haruka's face immediately changed to that of a surprised look. He was sure that people within earshot of them were also staring at them now, his crying certainly was not quiet by any means. He was just hoping that Shardis at this point was far enough away to not notice any of this, he didn't want the sergeant interrupting.

"I miss you…" Malek whispered out, trying to quiet his crying. He was basically succeeding, he had managed to stop his tears, but he was still letting out the odd sniffle and hiccup. He finally let his eyes go back to Haruka's face, and she looked somewhere between a mix of worry and astonishment. He didn't know how she did it but she got down from the air, throwing the straps off and coming over to Malek, standing in front of him.

"Please don't cry Malek. I forgive you." Malek felt so happy at that moment he couldn't hold back the extra tears now spilling from his eyes. Haruka was smiling, and Malek felt himself all of a sudden shift violently. He felt himself flip over, and the last thing he remembered was a sharp pain on his head.

xXx

"...I can't believe I got so over-excited that I flipped over and banged my head."

"Look on the bright side, Eren ended up doing the same thing. He even passed out too."

Malek had been so overcome with emotion and happiness he had completely forgotten about being suspended in air and trying to hold his balance, resulting in his flipping over and subsequent banging his head on the ground. He had a nice lump where his temple had collided with the ground, covered by a bandage that matched the dark-haired boy's he was sitting next to with green eyes. Both were glowering at Haruka, neither very happy with her, but she shrugged, taking another bite of her bread.

"At least Malek can balance up there, I'm just unable." Eren groaned out, putting his face in to his hands. Everyone sitting at the table looked at Eren with a look of pity, this had been the boy who had talked such big talk on the first night. Now many people were laughing and whispering about him, kicking the poor kid while he was down. Jean, the boy whom he had his spat with, took particular joy in Eren's failure. He could be seen with his friends pointing at Eren often laughing heartily, as if telling a wonderful joke about him that never got old.

"I'm sure you'll be able to get it…" Armin said timidly from beside Eren, looking at him with a look of utmost pity. Armin had even been able to do the training, but he dare not speak of it at this moment when Eren was so upset over it. "You'll get to try again tomorrow, right?"

"Yea, but if I can't get it I'll probably be sent home." Eren looked up and faced Armin, his voice holding obvious bitterness. Malek was sure Armin knew that it was not meant to be directed towards himself, but Armin still looked away nervously as if he had done something wrong.

"Just ask around for tips." Everyone turned to look at Mikasa. Malek had only just met her upon being introduced by Haruka, but the raven-haired girl was already proving to be the Annie of this group. She rarely spoke, and when she did it was only when spoken to or when offering some form of advice towards Eren or someone else. Mikasa was also, much like Haruka, simply eating her bread. Her face didn't hold the amused expression Haruka's did though, instead she looked bored.

"And who should I ask, Mikasa?" Eren said, obvious annoyance in his voice. It was easy to tell that he thought the idea was silly and that this was something a simple tip would not be able to help remedy, but upon that Malek had obtained a idea. Out of everyone, there had been 3 other trainees who had not laughed at Eren's failure, besides the people sitting at this table, of course.

"You could ask Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt!" Malek said, and everyone's eyes snapped to him. They were giving him looks that were questioning, excluding Mikasa who still wore a bored and stoic face, but Malek didn't care. He knew this was a good idea. "They all did really well during the training, and they're often on the top of the class too. They also haven't laughed at you at all, right Eren?"

Eren looked down at his food, as if contemplating what Malek had said. Then he looked up at Malek, a look of uncertainty still upon his features. "You really think they would help me…?"

"Well, I'm not so sure if Annie would help…" Malek had to be truthful, Annie seemed to not want to be bothered with people most of the time. Malek sometimes wondered why she had even bothered sitting with Reiner, Bertholdt, and himself. "But I know Reiner and Bertholdt would consider it. Come to our bunks tonight and me and Haru will ask them with you!"

And sure enough, that night Armin and Eren had wandered into their section of the bunks. They looked around uncertainly for a bit, before spotting the other two, immediately making a beeline for himself and Haruka. Haruka waved slightly when they finally approached, and Malek smiled.

"They're on top of Reiner's bunk right now. Let's climb up to talk to them." Malek then led the group toward said bunk, where he could already hear the voices of Reiner and Bertholdt carrying from on top of the second bunk. They had taken to often talking on top of the blonde's bed at night, having a few laughs before bed and hanging out. And without fail the two had convened there as they usually would. Malek had led the group up the ladder, smiling as the four newcomers crammed on to the bed. The only reason why this had worked out was because both Armin and Haruka were so tiny, both easily crammed in together sitting against the wall, as the other four boys sat facing each other on either side of them.

"Reiner, Bertholdt, this is Eren and Armin." Malek said, motioning to each person as he said their name. Everyone seemed to just nod at each other, Bertholdt and Reiner looking happy to see Haruka in the company of Malek once again. That meant they wouldn't have to deal with the two avoiding each other anymore, which was a win for everyone involved at this point.

"You're the kid who was having trouble today during training, right?" Reiner said, almost as if he was clairvoyant and knew that was exactly the reason why Eren was visiting them right now. Eren looked as if he was going to become angry, but he seemed to fight down the remark he was about to say. Malek knew he was just in a bad mood, but Reiner and Bertholdt probably wouldn't have been too happy if Eren started taking his frustration out on them too.

"Yea, I am." Eren said quietly, everyone's eyes now on him. "I wanted to ask you guys for help. I don't want to be sent home, becoming a solider is very important to me…" Eren trailed off, watching Reiner's face. Reiner seemed to look graver with every word that came out of Eren's mouth, and Bertholdt wasn't saying much, only watching Reiner for his reaction.

"I don't really think this is something that we can help you with." Reiner said, and everyone watched as Eren adopted the most defeated look anyone had ever seen in their life unto his face. Reiner seemed to feel bad, and continued speaking. "I mean, I understand this is important to you, but having balance and being able to stay upright is a skill you have to possess yourself…"

"Please!" Eren suddenly burst out, Armin, Haruka, and Bertholdt had all jumped at the sudden sound. "I really need to do this, anything, if you can help me in any way…" Reiner looked at Eren for a bit, as if contemplating something greatly. He crossed his arms, not speaking for what felt like eons to Malek, then finally sighed, letting his arms fall to his sides as if in defeat.

"Well, we can't give you any actual training with the 3dmg, but I think a hike would help your balance and calm you down. High levels of emotion makes it harder to do too." Malek looked away awkwardly at this, knowing full well that Reiner was referring to Malek's tumble today too. Malek had no doubt he'd be fine tomorrow, but he still felt highly embarrassed at this. He knew Reiner was just trying to give him advice.

"Well, let's go." And with that everyone started clambering down from the bunks. Malek and Eren had to go down first since they were the closest to the ladder and thus in the way of the large group, and after that Armin followed. When Haruka went to crawl over to the side of the bunk, she felt a hand on her wrist. She turned her icy blue orbs to look at Reiner, who gave Bertholdt a look and motioned for him to go ahead.

"I have something I want to talk to you about…"

It was dark, walking along the dirt path through the trees. Malek wasn't sure if they should be out of bed this late at night, let alone walking in the woods with a group of six people, but he supposed what Shardis didn't know wouldn't come back to bite them, as long as they all kept hush about it. Reiner was leading the group, oil-lamp in hand, with Bertholdt following close behind him. Eren brought up the middle, looking at Reiner's back intently, as Malek, Armin, and Haruka brought up the rear, walking side-by-side with Haruka in the middle. Malek held no ill feelings towards the blonde, but he knew that Armin still probably felt bad for supposively being the reason why the two had fought, even after Haruka went to great lengths to assure him it wasn't his fault at all.

The three weren't listening to the three ahead of them, who were talking about something or another they had stopped caring about. Instead, they were discussing something that Armin had brought up while whispering, something that Haruka and Malek both found interesting… or at least more interesting that Reiner's attempt at a profound speech to Eren.

"Lance Corporal?" Haruka said, her voice holding many forms of confusion and uncertainty. It was never a position Malek had heard of, and it felt comforting to know she never heard of it either. Armin had been telling him about a position that had been created in the survey corps, since he knew about the interest Haruka had taken in going into that section of the military as Eren had.

"Yes, a person named Levi holds it right now." Armin ducked under a branch, as did Haruka and Malek. The lamp he was holding swayed a bit at he stood back up, the light flickering over the leaves ahead of them and the backs of their friends ahead. "It's a position created for him, he has his own squad within the survey corps, and they're the best of the best within it."

Malek knew that the only reason why Arin was telling them about this right now was due to Haruka's amitions. To say she wanted to be the best was an understatement, she strove to defeat anyone she could in any way possible. Armin knew that this would spike her interest and she would want to join it.

"Hm…" Haruka looked down at her feet as she walked, a face of deep concentration upon her features. Malek knew she was formulating ways to get in to this squad. "How does one get in to it?" She finally looked up, looking directly at Armin. He shrugged, signaling his lack of knowledge on that, and they stopped. Reiner had turned around, smiling to the group.

"You'll be fine, Eren. I know you'll be able to do it no problem tomorrow." Eren looked up at awe at Reiner. Reiner looked so… official standing there. Behind him was the most beautiful view he'd ever seen, the moon shone brightly off the water at the bottom of the cliff, the trees swaying serenely as if rocking to a lullaby under the star-ridden sky. The moon illuminated him, making him almost seem as if he was not human.

"Well, we better get back to bed." And with that, Reiner pushed past everyone, but not before Malek realized that Reiner had said, looking at Haruka seriously;

"Don't forget tomorrow."

Malek wondered what they were up to.

xXx

When Haruka woke up the next morning, she didn't feel like getting up at all for some odd reason. Normally she would be the first out of bed and dressed, walking down to breakfast with whatever tired companion she could find that morning. However knowing what she had agreed to do today was causing her to dread going down to breakfast. If she went down to breakfast it would mean admitting she had had that conversation with reiner the night before, and that in a mere few hours they would be doing what he had wanted to do.

"Haru?" She finally opened her eyes to be looking in to warmer blue eyes. Malek looked concerned, as if Haruka was dying. She couldn't blame him, never had she, since their time in training, woken up and gotten out of bed after him. He was even fully dressed already, her clothes in his hands. "We're going to be late for breakfast if you don't hurry up…"

And with a grunt Haruka took her clothes and got up, slinking off to a more secluded place to change. Most of the guys who she slept with just changed in the middle of everything, however she couldn't, what with her peculiar situation. She knew people would raise their eyebrows at her figure and the bandages surrounding her chest. She was already growing annoyed, her chest seemed to grow bigger with every day coming, and her hips were too. She was having to wear training clothes that were not her size just to give her the illusion of not having a womanly figure already. Guys made fun of her too, calling her a coward and laughing whenever she opted to not change with them or take community baths, as guys so often seemed to do together. At least Malek was on her side, though; he would glare at guys making fun of her and even usually changed away from everyone with her and did things with her she would not do in the presence of other boys. It was nice to have one person who at least knew her secret.

"Do you think my hair is getting a bit long?" Haruka questioned Malek as she walked towards him outside of the bunks. She was starting to have to blow her fringe out of her eyes, though Malek seemed non-plussed about this. He simply said that her hair was fine and lead her off towards the mess hall.

"So, what was that about with Reiner last night?" Haruka almost froze in her tracks.

 _"Haruka, I need to talk to you." Haruka watched silently as Bertholdt descended from the bed, joining Malek, Eren, and Armin on their way to the door. The four were chatting happily about where they were going to hike. Haruka then let her eyes shift to Reiner, who was looking at her with a serious expression that threw her off. 'Oh god, he's gay isn't he. He's going to confess to me. Why do I have millions of gay guys on me...'_

 _"It's about Malek and Bertholdt." Haruka let out a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding in. Ever since she had opted to become a boy and came to wall Maria she had grown much popularity with often burly guys who were too masculine to admit they liked boys, however were not afraid to hit on her to her annoyance. Malek explained that she was very pretty for a boy so that was probably why she was gaining so much attention from these kinds of boys, however she still found it irritating. She was not bothering with love, there was no point, especially when most would flip when they found out she was concealing her true identity anyways._

 _"What about them?" Haruka said finally. She didn't have to ask thought to know what this was going to end up being about. It was common knowledge between herself and Reiner that Bertholdt and Malek had massive crushes on each other. Both of them, however, were too shy to approach each other. Haruka had tried everything she could to get Malek to make the first move, as well as Reiner with Bertholdt, but both had been having little luck._

 _"I'm sick of them." Haruka was taken aback at this, looking at him with a confused look. Reiner seemed to realize how this sounded, and quickly continued his thought. "I mean, I'm sick of looking at them liking each other so much, just to continue avoiding actually getting together. Like, they could have been dating ages ago."_

 _Haruka understood this. It was rather stupid to see them together being all cute, but neither having the guts to ask the other out. This left the two best friends frustrated and face palming at the situation, only wanting happiness for their friends. "But at the rate they're going, one of them is going to die or something before either of them finds out the other returned their feelings…" Haruka said, a grave expression on her face. She didn't want to imagine such a thing, but it was very possible._

 _"Well, that's why I have a plan." For some reason, Haruka did not like the grin spreading across Reiner's face. She could tell this plan would involve some situations that would more likely than not got them in trouble if found out, and if it failed she was positive Bertholdt and Malek would kill them for doing such a thing. Haruka had just patched things up again with Malek, she wasn't keen for there to be another spell of avoiding._

 _"You know that double-doored supply closet by the classrooms?" Haruka already knew where this was going. The very closet he was talking about happened to be accessible from two separate hallways by two doors, built in such a way as to make it easier on people cleaning the hallways. But Haruka knew that Reiner was not referring to it right now cause they needed to scrub floors._

 _"No…"_

 _"Great, then you'll help me lure Malek there right after breakfast, when everyone will be distracted by Eren doing the training! Then make sure he can't get out~" Reiner hadn't even given Haruka time to protest and just made his way off the bed, whistling as he walked towards the door to their friends. To say Haruka was pissed right now was an understatement. Why did she, of all people, get dragged in to such a plan?_

"It was nothing, he wanted to borrow some of my work to take some notes he missed in class." Haruka quickly lied, hoping that her face didn't betray what she was actually thinking right now. Malek didn't seem to notice anything amiss and shrugged, and the two finally walked in to the mess hall. It was already packed with people, Reiner waving them over to their table. Haruka didn't really want to sit with him, Bertholdt, and Annie right now, but she had promised to sit with them every other day with Malek. Though on the inside she did enjoy sitting with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin more.

"Hey guys." Reiner immediately greeted them, smiling at Haruka a tad too long for her tastes. No one else seemed to notice this though, Malek immediately sitting across from Bertholdt while Haruka sat next to him, across from Reiner. Annie was sitting at the end of the table away from everyone else; Reiner had once asked her why she often did that, to which she replied because they were annoying. Haruka swore she saw Annie smile while Reiner huffed though.

"I hope Eren does well today." Malek said, concern in his voice. Everyone at the table felt the same too, minus Annie probably, Haruka thought. It would be a shame to see such a spunky kid who aspired to so much go, especially for Haruka. It was nice talking to him about her dreams of going to the survey corps, both of them living out glorified dreams of killing titans and not being caged anymore within the walls.

"He'll be fine." And with that, Haruka ate in silence as Malek and Reiner chatted back and forth about random things for the rest of breakfast. In the course of this conversation it was found out that the reason why Malek had been up before Haruka had been he was called to Shardis's office, where the sergeant explained that Malek was fine for his 3dmg training and would not have to try it again today along-side Eren. Malek was relieved at this, not because he was worried he would fail like Eren, but due to the fact that Malek hated being watched by many people. And everyone would be watching Eren today.

Finally, the alarm sounded ending breakfast, and Reiner gave Haruka a pointed look. She knew what this look meant, it meant to start enacting the plan right away. Haruka had been dreading this moment all morning, but she knew that she could not back out now. It was for Malek and Bertholdt at least, if nothing went wrong hopefully this would work.

"Malek." Haruka said quickly, just as Malek was going to get up and head outside with the rest of the trainees. He looked over to her with a questioning look. "I forgot something in the classroom, can you come with me to get it?" Haruka tried to slap the most sheepish grin she could on her face, trying to act as if she was embarrassed about this. Malek looked at her worriedly.

"You don't usually forget things…" He said, looking at her as if she was developing dementia. Haruka rolled her eyes, standing up from the table.

"Don't we all forget things sometimes?" Malek didn't seem to have an argument for that, and they both filed the opposite way of everyone else, heading towards the classrooms that were deeper within the camp. The walked in silence, Haruka couldn't tell if Malek just didn't know what to say or if he was still worrying about if she was going senile already, when finally she saw it, the closet in question. She wondered if reiner had already done his part, if he hadn't it would be very difficult to keep Malek in there, considering the other door was no doubt not locked. But she heard footsteps coming from the next hall-way over, and knew in her head it was now or never.

"Haru-" Malek never got to say what he had wanted to say, Haruka had quickly grabbed his arm, swinging the supply closet door open. To her relief she was looking at a similar scene in front of her, Bertholdt was looking bewildered as Reiner pushed him in to the closet, Reiner smiling to Haruka. Haruka wasted no time in imitating, quickly throwing Malek in to the closet, and slamming the door behind him, standing in front of it and hearing the bang from the other door Reiner had no doubt just slammed behind Bertholdt. She had to lean against the door to keep Malek from pushing it open, swearing at her and demanding her let him out, but after awhile the banging ceased. She couldn't hear what was going on in the closet now, so all she could do was hope that it was going well.

She stood there, straining her ears to hear anything. What were they doing in there? Were they grumbling and cursing herself and Reiner, talking about ways to get out, making out…? Haruka had to fight the urge to wrench open the door and check. She didn't want to do it now, it felt like it had not been enough time, and she did not want to barge in too early before any progress was made.

"What are you doing?"

Haruka immediately knew she was going to be in trouble. Slowly her eyes turned to rest on a man, who looked a cross between annoyed and bored. He had black hair with an undercut, and grey eyes that seemed to pierce in to her soul and pretty much out her and her shenanigans. He wore the military uniform, and had a cravat around his neck. Next to him was a woman with shoulder-length ginger hair, looking at her with curious amber coloured eyes, she was also wearing the military uniform, however she was also wearing a green cloak. She also noted that the man seemed to be quite short, most people towered over her, but he only seemed to be two to three inches taller than her, at the most.

"I said, what are you doing?" Haruka jumped. She had been so busy studying these two she had failed to answer the man's question, she finally realized. She quickly pulled herself in to a salute, trying to adapt her stony poker face but she had a hunch this guy could tell she was a deer caught in headlights at this point, his gaze almost made her feel like he even knew her true gender.

"N-Nothing, u-uhm…" She wanted to hit herself for stuttering, and not knowing what his name was. He seemed to grow more annoyed, while the woman next to him gave a small smile to Haruka. She was sure that the woman was probably feeling pity for her right now, and was trying to calm her down.

"Lance Corporal Levi, shitty brat."

"Lance Corporal Levi, sir." Haruka tried to fight the urge to scowl right now. She couldn't believe this guy had just called her a shitty brat. And even worse, he was THE Lance Corporal Levi. The one Armin had told her about, and she had been so excited to join his squad. If he was this bad of a person though, she was reconsidering her career aspirations, stat. She'd rather be in the military police force than have to be around this foul person.

"Why do I not believe you… what's your name, shitty brat?" At this point Haruka was fighting everything within herself to not come up with a smart remark for him, biting her tongue quickly. She could taste the irony blood coming from her tongue, but it did nothing but soothe her temper. For some reason inflicting pain to herself helped to keep her emotions in check in such times.

"Haruka Greiner, sir, of the 42nd trainee squad." He eyed her, almost as if he expected her to confess she had murdered someone. She had the feeling that he would not be the type to sympathize in matters of love, so she knew that letting him know what she was doing with Reiner right now was absolutely out of the question.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd, shitty brat, that every other trainee is currently outside besides you?" She knew that her eyes had narrowed, mirroring his own dark ones, and they had commenced a sort of staring contest that radiated hatred from both sides. She knew he thought that upon that fact she would just admit what she was up to, but he did not know her. She would die before she ever admitted to anything, especially to this guy.

"Corporal." Haruka blinked, finally looking over to the woman he was with again. She was looking between them as if she was amused, and to Haruka it seemed as if she was trying to suppress a grin or a laugh. Levi didn't seem to notice this himself, only shifting his gaze to her and looking at her with his dead-panned face.

"Yes, Petra?"

"We gotta get going, Commander Erwin wants to speak to you, remember?" Levi made a sound that almost sounded like a 'tch', his eyes turning to Haruka and giving her one last glare. With that he turned, silently stalking off, Petra smiling and mouthing 'good luck with whatever you're up to' and following after him quickly. Haruka knew if she ever came across Petra again she'd have to thank her for saving her there. And she also knew she did not like Levi at all.

Then, Haruka heard the door open behind her.

xXx

Malek couldn't believe this. Why was he standing in a closet right now, surrounded by cleaning supplies and buckets, looking at an equally confused and flustered Bertholdt through the darkness. Both of the doors to the supply closet shut behind them, and they were left there in the dark. Malek didn't know why but he was holding his breath currently. Maybe it was because he was left alone with the object of his affections? He had never been in such a situation before.

"...Did Haruka trick you in here, like Reiner did to me?" Malek jumped slightly, not expecting to hear Bertholdt's voice. He was glad it was dark in the closet and Bertholdt couldn't see him currently, cause he was sure he probably looked like a nervous wreck currently. He'd hate for him to see him in such a way.

"Yea." Was all Malek could muster in response. He heard rustling in the darkness, and the sound of things clanking to his right.

"Well we should try to at least get some light in here." Malek understood what the sounds were coming from now, at least. He wasted no time trying to help, he consulted his memory of what it looked like in the closet when it was lit and felt slowly to his right, trying not to trip over anything as he went to the shelf to try to find a lamp to light. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, but he still felt like he was looking for a needle in a hay stack trying to find something to provide them with some light.

"Found it!" He was surprised at how close Bertholdt's voice sounded, and even more surprised when bertholdt had managed to light the lamp. They were inches from each other, both looking in to each other's eyes. Malek quickly looked away, his face burning bright red, trying to distance himself from Bertholdt. However, he felt a hand grab his.

"Please don't run away…" Malek blinked, looking right in to Bertholdt's eyes. He was looking in to Malek's seriously, his hand firm but gentle upon Malek's. Malek could feel his stomach full of butterflies at that moment, looking in to those serious eyes. Oh, how he wanted to just lean forward and kiss him…

"Malek, I like you." Malek could almost not believe what he was hearing from Bertholt right now. Was he dreaming right now? Was he going to wake up to Haruka prodding him in the face, telling him he was going to be late to do the training with Eren, that he hadn't been excused from it, that this moment was not even happening? "I think that's why those two forced us in to this room together, to get me to finally confess… I just hope you like me too…"

Euphoria was not even close to the word Malek wanted to use to describe how he felt right now. All this time he had been pining over Bertholdt, the boy felt the same way as him. Malek hadn't even been sure if Bertholdt swung that was too, Malek had adopted a 'don't ask, don't tell' attitude toward his sexual preference thus far in the military, Haruka being the only person he had told thus far. He had the fleeting feeling Haruka had probably told Reiner, who told her of Bertholdt's reciprocation, which led to this, but he was not about to spoil this moment by telling Bertholdt this.

The next thing Bertholdt did almost made Malek die on the spot. He slowly leaned forward, lifting his hand to Malek's cheek and softly caressing it, his eyes growing half-lidded as he looked in to Malek's blue orbs. "If you don't feel the same way, feel free to stop me at any time…" But Malek did not want this to stop, he even anticipated it gleefully as the other boy's lips inched closer to his.

And finally that glorious moment occurred. He felt Bertholdt's lips slowly touch his own, and electricity surge through his body. Was this how it was going to feel with every kiss? Malek felt himself hoping so as Bertholdt pulled back, smiling.

"We should probably get going now, Eren can't be taking that long to finish training and we should get out there in case Shardis has something for us to do." Malek had no objections to this, he still felt dazed from the wonderful feeling going through his body. Bertholdt took his hand in his own, leading him towards the door that he was been shoved in by Haruka, and opened it.

There was Haruka, staring down the hall with the most sour look he had ever seen in his life. But upon realizing they were there, she immediately turned, looking at them as if expecting them to explode on her. But Malek slowly noticed her worried look melted in to one of happiness upon seeing their linked hands. Bertholdt smiled happily, while Malek blushed, a bit embarrassed.

"Thank you…" Malek murmured out. Haruka laughed a bit, walking up to him and punching him playfully in the shoulder.

"Don't thank me, thank Reiner. It was his idea." And with that the three started walking out towards the outside, chatting about random things as if Haruka hadn't just been an accomplice in pushing the two in a dark supply closet. Bertholdt never let go of Malek's hand until they reached the door to the outside, which Malek was thankful for. He didn't want any unwanted attention from others.

Malek could say that that day had honestly been one of the happiest in his life. he had hoped that many more would come after that, sharing happy times with his friends, Haruka, and Bertholdt now… but as we all know, life is never all flowers and rainbows. So Malek was going to cherish these silly and carefree training days with his friends, not thinking of what they would face in three years time.

It's as they usually say, ignorance is bliss.


End file.
